IFIP President Mike Hinchey, UNESCO’s Gabriela Ramos and IFIP President-elect Anthony Wong in Paris last week
IFIP President Mike Hinchey and President-Elect, Anthony Wong met with UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, Gabriela Ramos, and her staff in Paris last week for discussions on ethical considerations relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The meeting, at UNESCO’s headquarters at Maison de l’UNESCO, was organised after the UNESCO General Conference adopted the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at its 41st session in November last year.
As a result of last week’s meeting, IFIP has agreed to establish a series of follow-up meetings with UNESCO to identify areas where IFIP can assist the UN body in key policy areas including the development and deployment of two important tools:
1) an ethical impact assessment (EIA) that aims to assess the impact of AI systems throughout their life cycle, and
2) a readiness benchmarking methodology that will help countries to assess their preparedness level for ethical AI implementation.
“We are very pleased to support UNESCO with expertise and advice on the potential impacts of AI and how it can be harnessed effectively for the good of all,” said Mr Hinchey.
“We look forward to IFIP making a tangible contribution to this work and to collaborating with UNESCO and related bodies well into the future.”
While in Paris, Professor Hinchey and Mr Wong also met with Assistant Director General for ICT, Dr Tawfik Jelassi, to discuss more action-oriented collaboration with UNESCO on digital transformation and digital competency development. Dr Jelassi was a speaker in the final event to celebrate IFIP’s 60th anniversary in December 2021.
